Monster DACH jumps on employer-branding bandwagon

20 Oct 2016

Courtesy of Monster Worldwide

After doing a soft launch at the end of September, Monster Germany promoted its newest product – the so-called Employer Branding Profile – with fanfare this week in Cologne at Zukunft Personal, the human resources trade fair.

Employer Branding Profile was officially introduced on Tuesday in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH countries). Monster Worldwide, along with its joint venture partner Kununu, launched a slightly different version of the product in June in the U.S. market.

The new German-language service enables a company to create a customized landing page on Monster with information about the organization, photos, videos, links to social media and, of course, a list of its job openings on Monster.

Monster’s service team assists with production of the Employer Branding Profile page. Job postings for the company on Monster also receive a branding makeover in line with the profile page.

A 12-month package for the Employer Branding Profile costs around €7,000 ($7,679 U.S.), and includes the production of a banner ad and three months of social media advertising. Content on the branding page can be made available in up to five additional languages at no extra cost.

Katrin Luzar (photo), senior manager for public relations and content DACH, told us Monster focuses primarily on job search from the candidate’s perspective. Many companies don’t realize that image is everything when it comes to attracting the best job applicants.

(Monster Germany’s Recruiting Trends Survey 2016, published in March, claims that 75 percent of candidates check out a company’s brand before they decide to apply for jobs.)

Luzar said Monster’s role is to help recruiters attract talent better by turning the focus away from their needs to that of the candidate. “We show them which methods to use when you approach different kinds of candidates, especially younger ones,” she added.

Katrin Luzar, senior manager for PR and content at Monster Germany (photo from LinkedIn with thanks)

Employer branding tools have become popular value-added services for job sites. Xing and Kununu, which Xing acquired in 2013, offer what Monster and Kununu do in the U.S..

LinkedIn also has its Career Pages product (brand-customized LinkedIn company profiles) within its Talent Solutions portfolio.

Monster Germany has been working hard to maintain a high profile in a market crowded with rivals, such as StepStone and Indeed. It launched its largest multi-media PR campaign in years in May – that brought us a new, hairy monster! – and continues to leverage the massive amounts of data it collects by producing studies.

Lazar said while the lion’s share of its revenue still comes from postings, Monster will continue to roll out innovate, new products – even if they aren’t significant moneymakers.

And regarding Monster Worldwide’s acquisition by Randstad (we had to ask), Lazar commented that, for its part, Monster Germany is “excited to start talks,” assuming the deal is finalized at the end of the month, but she said it remains “business as usual” in Eschborn, the German headquarters.

Kate Rodriguez covers the German market for AIM Group. She is a freelance business writer with an extensive background in public policy, business consulting and marketing. Originally from the U.S., Kate is now based in Munich.